Rockets All-Time Players Roster has to be top 3 in NBA History

Larry Smith “Mr. Mean” was a rebounding machine. He could be the answer with all the outside shooting.

 

Yeah, of those guys, only Rodman is on the level of players I think I mentioned, but I wouldn't put him on the Spurs since he barely even played for them. What 1 or 2 seasons? But if you're including players that just "passed through", I guess he would have to be included.

I'll give you LaMarcus - I completely forgot about him.

Agreed with everybody would probably end up with a great team if you use the criteria of them just having played for them whether it be 1 season or 20 or at the end of their career or their entire career. Can the Heat use MJ, too, since they retired his number? lol. Nowadays with guys going from team to team, everybody will probably end up with a great team in a few years.

Also, I mentioned Philly on the first page. They're probably a top-5 or maybe Top-3 team for me. Whenever this topic comes up across the Internet, I swear people forget all the great players that have been through there.

 

I had Philly in mind myself tbh as one of the top teams. Pretty undeniable starting 5, and more than enough top tier players to fill out a competitive bench.

Cheeks
Iverson
Erving
Barkley
Malone/Chamberlain (Take your pick either way that's an all-time center lol)

That's a contender against any starting 5 I think.

 

I feel like as an "all time" team you have have to include the years that player played for you in your calculation. Houston doesn't get prime Scottie Pippen - they get lazy, loafing, angry about money late in his career Scottie. Same with the Lakers - you get prime Shaq and Kobe, but you don't get prime Karl Malone or Gary Payton - you get the grizzled vets who were still solid players but they might not even make the roster on their all time team. Shaq played for 6 teams - you can't have "all time" vs "all time" and the same version of Shaq on both teams - that's silly.

I think Houston would have a very solid team - Hakeem, Elvin, Tmac, Harden, Murphy with a bench of Franchise, Yao, Artest, Amen(yes, I said it!), Dwight, Deke, and CP3(who wasn't prime, but was still VERY good)....but there are some sneaky good teams out there too people are forgetting.

I think a sneaky good team would be the Bulls - obviously prime Jordan and Pippen but DRose too? Prime DRose was a problem and he would be an even bigger deal if injuries hadn't cut his career short. Add guys like Jimmy Butler(turned into his prime there), Dwayne Wade(had his last good year there), Dennis Rodman, Ben Wallace fresh of winning his last DPOY award in Detroit, prime Carlos Boozer, prime Joakim Noah(won a DPOY as a Bull and was an MVP candidate?!?!) - that's a gritty and TOUGH team. Maybe a little short on offense but when you have prime Jordan does that matter? Chicago also has a ton of role playing shooters over the years to add - Hinrich, Ben Gordon, Kerr, Hodges, etc.

....also Orlando has prime Dwight, Shaq, Penny, Lewis, TMac, and Hedo and guys like Banchero sitting on the bench. For a team that didn't exist until 1990 - that's a hell of a squad although not as deep as some of the longer standing teams. That is a team that would be the ultimate inside out team with Shaq and Dwight inside and all those shooters around them.

Also - what do we do about the Sonics - do they get to combine with the Thunder because if so - that team would be a problem with prime Gary Payton, SGA, Durant, Shawn Kemp, Ray Allen, Detlef Schrempf, Xavier McDaniel, Rashard Lewis, Jack Sikma, Jalen Williams, Harden, Westbrook, and Chet.

....and finally - people sleep on Detroit because they haven't been good in a minute but historically they had some great teams - combing the original Bad Boy Pistons with early 2000s teams AND give them prime Grant Hill and Jerry Stackhouse - that's another gritty team...Dumars, Isiah Thomas, Chauncy, Rip Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, Ben Wallace and Rodman creating havoc, throw in Cade as a floor general....tough.

 

Yup - another sneaky good team that somehow omits the 21/ 10ast / 7reb version of Harden, prime Embid, Maxey, and Iguadala. People sleep on Embid because of injuries but prime Embid is a 33/10/4 guy who can dominate inside and out and erases all kinds of shots.

 

If you're talking about "true" prime years on that particular team, I'll bet on the Bulls starting 5 against any teams, including the Lakers. The 95'-96' trio of Jordan/Pippen/Rodman are just unbeatable, plus prime Derrick Rose (MVP) and hall of fame 2-way center Artis Gilmore, would be a perfect lineup.
Lakers big names look scary on paper, Wilt at center Kareem at PF... yeah, but i doubt it really work in a real game. and yeah, the league won't let MJ lose either.

 

Huh? Harden Embid, Maxey, and Iggy are on their bench and they also have access to prime Ben Simmons before he got scared of shooting and just played - dude was VERY good in his prime.

Huh? The Bulls have Rodman, Joakim Noah(won DPOY as a Bull), and Ben Wallace(won his DPOY award with the Pistons and switched to the Bulls that offseason)...they also had prime Carlos Boozer as a big. Yeah those first 3 guys guys don't score a lot but when you are on a roster with Jordan, Pippen, DRose, DWade, AND Jimmy Butler - your job as a center is to rebound and defend because there is still only one ball.

That's what I'm talking about - Amen has a chance to be the most dominant wing/guard defender of all time. It remains to be seen if he gets there but for the purposes of "all time" teams - he just needs to have one DOMINANT defensive season(and last year was pretty good for his 2nd year) and I would absolutely pay big money to see a guy like Amen try to lock up a guy like Kobe. Amen is smart as a guy like Battier but has even more athleticism than Kobe which is saying a lot. People talk about Amen's physical skills so often but forget the thing that makes him elite is that he can actually process the game at the same speed of his athleticism. That is just not normal - Lebron is the only guy I can think of who does the same and he was more of a power player than Amen.

Defensively Amen is like a Jaguar to Lebron's Tiger - head to head the Tiger wins because of size/strength, but Jaguars are more agile making them better swimmers and climbers so naturally they are more effective against certain type of prey or in certain environments where Tigers can't maximize their strength advantage....but please give me an Amen/Kobe death match any day because I think it would be fascinating.

 

yeah, that was my point above too - add physical prime Jimmy Butler to that team too and DWade's last good year and you have some real killers on that team so you don't mind that Joakim Noah and Ben Wallace and Dennis Rodman are on your roster offensively.

 

With players being soft now and moving everywhere to escape having to work to attain a ring most teams are gonna have lists like this at some point. Its the Lebron Effect.

 

Knicks would be pretty nasty as well, even if we apply the "good whilst they played there" caveat.

Frazier
Monroe
Anthony
King
Reed

With some very tasty players like Ewing, Starks, Stoudamire, Sprewell etc coming off the bench. It really is a testament to the Magic how great their players have been in a short period because all of the long-time teams have got absolute monster squads.

 

The Knicks haven't been a legit contender for a while and they weren't exactly the most aesthetically pleasing team back then either - they just kind of slowed the game down and played physically. Definitely one the least exciting contenders of recent memory....what would that roster be - Ewing, Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Alan Houston, Larry Johnson, Camby, Sprewell, Brunson, KAT - feels like a distant team in the grand scheme of things. They went to the Finals in 99 and is there a single player on that team who made the hall of fame? EDIT: I guess 36yr old Ewing was technically on the team but he only played 30ish games and didn't even play in the playoffs.

Clippers never won it although I will be the first to admit a CP3, Blake Griffin, Kawhi, Harden, Elton Brand, Deandre Jordan, Paul George team would be tough although most of those guys are known for being also rans of their time.

You are right about the Heat though - Lebron, Wade, Bosh, Zo, Shaq, Jimmy Butler, Tim Hardaway, Glen Rice, Dragic, Ray Allen, Lamar Odom, Bam, Lowery - that's a super gritty team

 

We having old versions of these players is a problem.

Charles Barkley was awesome during his prime. As a Rocket, he's scraping the bottom of the stars.